Study: Connecticut’s high school athletes not being fully protected

A football player in California is checked for a concussion. California ranked near the bottom of all states in terms of high school sports safety.

By Associated Press

High school athletics in Connecticut was ranked 38th in a study conducted by the Korey Stringer Institute and sponsored in part by the NFL that looked at how the states are implementing key safety guidelines to protect athletes from potentially life-threatening conditions, including heat stroke.

The institute is a sports safety research and advocacy organization located at UConn and named after the former Vikings star who died from exertional heat stroke in 2001.

More than 7.8 million high school students participate in sanctioned sports annually. KSI announced the results Tuesday at a news conference at NFL headquarters.

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The state-by-state survey showed North Carolina with the most comprehensive health and safety policies at 79 percent, followed by Kentucky at 71 percent. At the bottom were Colorado (23 percent) and California (26 percent).

Those scores were based on a state meeting best practice guidelines addressing the four major causes of sudden death for that age group: cardiac arrest; traumatic head injuries; exertional heat stroke; and exertional sickling occurring in athletes with sickle cell trait.

From the Stringer Institute report

What are the leading causes of death for secondary school athletes? The leading causes of death among secondary school athletes are: sudden cardiac arrest, traumatic head injuries, exertional heat stroke, and exertional sickling.

How many secondary school athletes are injured each year? More than 7.8 million secondary school athletes participate in a wide variety of sanctioned sports annually. From 1982 to 2015, there have been 735 fatalities (185 from direct causes, 550 from indirect causes). During that time, there have also been 626 catastrophic injuries (613 from direct causes, 13 from indirect causes). Direct causes are attributed to trauma (e.g. athlete-to-athlete or athlete-to-object contact). Indirect causes are exertion based (e.g. exertional heat stroke, sudden cardiac arrest, asthma).